Gold Is But An Illusion
by LittleMissRockerChick
Summary: Her parents and brother are gone, her sister doesn't need her and her town is in the deep end of the war pool.  Sabrina thinks it can't get much worse.  But when a gold ring becomes her's, can she uncover the truth when it's staring her in the face?
1. Rain, Rain, Go Away

**Hi. Just so you know: the Grimms are driving to the train station to see Henry, Veronica and Basil Jr. back to NYC, where they have decided to help Faerie rebuild itself. BTW, this is set in between the 8****th**** and the 9****th**** books. *Gangallah is a word I made up, it means a farewell party. Thanks to my friend Micsy for not laughing at it. I'm dedicating this story to you, Curlscat, for your AWESOME, AMAZING story, Never Gonna Happen Challenge. You are my new hero.**

Rain was pouring down the window of the 'car'. Sabrina stared out of it, already bored and sad and, well, angry with the world. Daphne was sitting next to her, babbling to Red, Veronica, Jake and Granny about the latest episode of Merlin. The landscape outside the car seemed like it had been tinted gray. Gray hedges and plants, gray road, gray sky, gray houses, even a gray cow, munching on gray grass surrounded by gray cow pats. Miserably gray, just like her.

At the station, the goodbyes said made it sound like it was a funeral. Veronica cried over leaving, and Henry pretended to be impatient. He wasn't fooling anyone. Daphne was front and centre in saying goodbye to her parents and brother. Granny stood back, looking at her son and daughter-in-law who were about to leave for good. Sabrina hung back, not quite in the outskirts, but not in the centre of the gangallah*.

Puck wasn't there. He had announced the night before that anyone who wanted him to go and see off Henry, Veronica and Basil would have to bodily throw him from his room and tie him to the roof of the car in pixie-proof, titanium-strength duct-tape. Jake gave up after half a dozen attempts.

At last, the train was off. Veronica was crying and clutching Basil (who had no idea what were he was going, just that his sisters where not coming), waving his hands at the group who would stay in Ferryport Landing. Henry was crying openly now, shouting requests for Sabrina, Daphne, Granny and Jake to stay safe. Elvis howled like a wounded wolf. Daphne was running alongside the train, begging them not to leave, and Jack had sat down on a tree stump and held his head in his hands. Sabrina was leaning against a tree, just letting the tears fall.

When the train was out of sight, the company of relatively sombre family members walked back to the car. Daphne and Red were trying to console a wounded Elvis. Jake was holding his mother, who was crying into his shoulder. Sabrina was walking at the end of the line, reflecting on how this was similar to the occasion when she and Daphne had first arrived at Ferryport Landing. But, in a way, knowing her parents were alive and had willingly left her was worse that if they were dead.

As she was about to climb into the car, Sabrina noticed something that had not been there previously. The was a gold ring on the ground, glittering for all the world in a land seemingly without colour or life, a drop of gold in a sea of gray. Without conscious thought of what she was doing, Sabrina picked up the ring and put it in her pocket. And the ring itself almost seemed to speak to her.

**Did you like it? Flames will be put out with a fire extinguisher I dented with a spoon. Marshmallows will be toasted. If you can guess which ring it is guess, I will review every single chapter of a story of your choice. That's making an effort, because I am not the world's most talented/regular reviewer. ADIOS!**

**- LittleMissRockerChick**


	2. The Coming of the Storm

**Thankyou reviewers! Even if there were only two of you! **

**Miss Taco: Maybe… maybe not… **

**TheAfterShock: Henry doesn't want to go, but he thinks it would be best for all of them. The war has just suddenly stopped, and they think the Scarlet Hand is planning something, so they want to get Basil out ASAP.**

**GrimmSabrina: they SAY WHAT NOW?**

**I forgot to mention, Briar Rose is still alive**

**Disclaimer: "Finally! I own TSG!" 'Umm… not really…' "DAMN!"**

The next morning, silence reigned. The sunlight slashing the windows of the Grimm house was surreal, almost fake. It was, Sabrina reflected with a humourless grin, like living in a fairytale. As if their real life had been a painting washed over with this glaze of fraud. And still, the breeze whistled. The magpies cawed their ugly song as if it were the soundtrack of a movie.

And so it was, for the next day, the next week, the next fortnight. Sabrina thought that this empty silence could go on forever.

Then the storm was sighted. Black clouds of rain and green clouds of hail, flashes of lightning and the sound of a hundred thunder-drums rolling across the Hudson River.

"The night that storm comes will be a dark night," Granny Relda prophesised when the rainclouds appeared over Stony Point, another Hudson River-based town. Reports were flooding into the local radio station emergency line with reports about mass property damage, hailstones the size of baseballs and magic going haywire with all the electricity in the air.

Nobody knew exactly why the storm came in the middle of autumn, but even the regular humans admitted that this storm wasn't entirely natural. For one thing, it was probably the slowest moving storm in the Hudson River history. Also, it just suddenly appeared one day over Cold Spring, a noted Norse-deity hotspot. After all, who had ever heard of migrating birds landing in Florida with mutations and severe burns, while acting completely unharmed?

And, just to prove how serious this was, Puck, King of Not-Caring, acknowledged that this storm may not be all that great.

Sabrina noticed that Everafters in particular, minus Red and Puck, were acting unusual. They were oddly tense, looking out to the horizon as if in hope some help would come. Scarlet Hand and rebels (who had become known as the Cobalts) alike were stocking up on odd objects, such as string.

Even Granny Relda was acting a bit strange.

One afternoon, after attempting to read The Jungle Book, Sabrina came into the kitchen to find Granny Relda removing all iron objects from the kitchen.

"What _are_ you doing, Granny?" Sabrina asked the old lady.

"Ooh, aah," Relda puffed as she lifted a heavy iron sift out of a cabinet. "I'm moving all of the iron from the house to the garage outside. You know, _liebling_, that Everafters are allergic to iron, and charged iron is basically a death sentence. Its touch burns them."

As Sabrina turned to leave, Granny Relda spoke, "And no, Sabrina. You may not give Puck a _little surprise_."

"Damn!" Sabrina hissed under her breath

October blew in with a bluster of leafs, wind and rain. The storm was still far off from Ferryport Landing, but not by much. At least, Sabrina reflected one chilly afternoon, the Everafters seemed to relax. A bit.

As Sabrina, Daphne, Red and Puck no longer went to school, Uncle Jake had decided they needed something educational to do. Every Monday, they did an hour of maths and English studying, and then spent the rest of the week trying to forget it. Jake watched them do this most of the time, supposedly to help Daphne and Red (but they all suspected it was to look good for Briar). But on the morning of Monday 9th of October, Granny Relda announced at breakfast they wouldn't need to study until the start of November.

"…So, _lieblings_, I thought you might need a break from school for the next couple of weeks. It will give you energy to study harder later…" Granny finished as she set down a huge pile of turquoise pancakes with tomato sauce.

"SWEET!" Puck yelled as he dived forwards into the pile of pancakes. He soon reappeared, covered in sauce and bits of blue pastry.

Red, who wasn't very good at academic things, smiled to herself and Daphne pumped her fist in the air while mouthing '_score!'_ Only Sabrina looked disappointed.

Later that day, Sabrina decided that the warmth of the inside of the house, while comfortable, was not worth the noise. Puck and Daphne had taken it upon themselves to make as much noise as possible, in celebration of not having to do work. Everafters kept rushing in and out of the house to talk to Mr Canis (who had elected not to become Mr Clay because no one would remember his new name), to ask Granny how to do this, to ask for Jake's help with some magical device or another, or just to get something to eat.

And that was why, on a drizzly, windy, cold October afternoon, Sabrina Grimm could be found on the veranda in one of those swingy-cocoon-things, wearing her mother's University of New York letter jacket, thumbing her gold ring and reading _Emma_. It was one of her favourite books, because she could relate to the characters.

_"She did not always feel so absolutely satisfied with herself, so entirely convinced that her opinions were right and her adversary's wrong."_

**Thankyou, reviewers! You guys are awesome-sauce. Seriously.**

**-Joey**


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